Seeing Stars
by SaiSaiB
Summary: The Paladins and Lions are Earth-bound, but they are running out of energy...fast. Allura may hold the key to their success, but the cost is uncertain.
1. Chapter 1

The vast void of space seemed infinitely more quiet as the team flew in formation. The silence almost hummed in each of their ears as stars, planets, and celestials bodies flew past their mechanical leviathans. Some of them found the silence comforting; it allowed them to think and process the problems of the past, present and future. They were able to twist the possible strategies and outcomes like a rubix cube to see what would make the pattern complete.

Some fidgeted with their throttles, desperate for conversation. As each tick passed in utter silence, it finally was enough to drive one of them to break up the monotony. Hunk sighed then spoke aloud:

"So...when are we going to talk about the fact that our lions are quickly running out of power and we have no way to recharge them before we reach Earth? And also...when can we stop for a space goo stop? I'm kind of starving."

Though most of the team seemed to visablly wince at the spoken truth, Allura reached up to rub the bridge of her nose in frustration. She sighed and looked down at her console. The readout for the energy levels of her lion were drifting below the median mark. They had stayed full for much of their journey; the boost from the quintessence field had kept them at full capacity far longer than they had thought was possible. But once it had worn off, the power levels succumbed to their full-throttle sojourn across galaxies. It also forced them to realize that the destruction of the Castle of Lions was also the destruction of their only way to charge and refuel the Lions.

Allura felt her heart clench as the loss of her home, and all that it had been to her, hit again.

Coran, sharing in her sorrow and sensing her emotion, grasped her shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze.

"Our only hope is to get those plans for a new Castle." Coran spoke to the team, "It includes the docking stations for each lion. With Allura's alchemy, we should be able to charge the Lions once its built. Now…" he unconsciously smoothed his moustache, "...the question is how close can we get to your Earth and get a message to your father, Number 5?"

Pidge bit her lip. "The Garrison has solid communication throughout our Solar System, but I'm starting to seriously doubt that the Lions will make it that far. Without the teleduv and the power to create a wormhole, I'm not sure how we are going to get there before power runs out."

Keith, used to processing in silence, finally spoke up. "What about the fact that these Lions were outside their docking stations for 10,000 years and kept their charge? There must be a secondary system that we haven't accessed yet?"

Allura shook her head. "The Lions were in status, or hibernation. They weren't using any energy and didn't need to charge. They could have stayed that way for another millenia or more. We are using a significant amount of energy and a constant pace." She gripped the handles of her throttle even tighter. "Without the plans...I'm unsure how to solve this problem."

Admitting that to the team killed her. She was the daughter of King Alfor: creator of the Lions. She was the Princess, and should be able to have the answer. She was fused with the White Lion, and should have access to the necessary alchemy. She was useless to her team.

"What about the Quintessence field?" Lance chimed in, "Allura got us there before. Could we just jump in there again? We would just top off, jump back, and then we would be good to go for the rest of the trip?"

Everyone seemed to hear Keith roll his eyes through the comm. "It's not like a button we can just press at whim, Lance" His irritation with the Red pilot dripping in each syllable, "We can't just hop in like Mario into another dimension. Reality doesn't work like your games."

"I'm not sure what that means" Allura said, "but Keith is right. If my abilities were stronger, we might be able to access that realm, with some kind of transreality stabilizer. However, the only reason I was able to get us to the Quintessence field without the gate was because the barriers between realities was thinner when we were by Daibazal." She sighed heavily into the comm, "I apologize to you all for not having the answer to this."

The conversation continued as Allura lost herself in thought. She heard each Paladin and passenger present a possible theory that could help with their dilemma. She, however, did not process it as the weight of her inadequacy sunk into every part of her.

Her father had been a part of the original Voltron Team for years, and he had been able to solve every issue he had come across. He had used his brilliant mind to innovate and create whatever was needed to make his team and the Lions better. He had been able to listen to the mechanical beasts and develop whatever it was they needed. The sword, the blade, the canons, the shield...He had been able to engineer them all. She was still trying to access all of the weaponry he had left behind, let alone be able to create and add to Voltron.

She remembered a memory from her youth. Watching her father with the Lions had been like watching magic unfold before her. He had manipulated energy and quintessence and let it flow into the wiring and the metal. He connected deeply with the Lions; he seemed to anticipate what their next step would be and how to program it into reality. He had made the impossible possible.

Allura felt a tear leave the corner of her eye and travel down her cheek. It lingered on the inside of her helmet before it dropped onto the console. Memories and the sense of inadequacy were heavy weights to bear.

Her Lion seemed to purr inside her mind, reaching out at the signal of her distress. She closed her eyes and focused.

'Please. Speak to me. I will listen."

The Lion seemed to nudge images and ideas into her mind. She furrowed her brow, more confused at first than anything. Blue showed her images of the Lions themselves. Of thousands of years passing by. Day to night. Season to season. It showed her what it was like to wait and to remember past paladins.

It showed her what it was like to sit and wait. To watch small changes in the environment from their resting place. Blue showed her a quickened version of its own dormant time. It showed her the cavern where it had rested and waited. It showed how the light moved in patterns along the walls as the sun went through its course for eons. It showed her how a single stream had managed to cut into a rock face over the course of few thousand years.

After a few moments, she opened her eyes. She said a small thank you to the Blue Lion as well as to her Father.

"Paladins!"

Her voice quieted the discussion. The coms rang with the quiet hum of nothingness and space.

"I think I can help us. We need to land. We need a planet with water. Lots and lots of water."

Between Pidge and Hunk, it had only taken a dobosh to locate a planet with a large percentage of water and sustainable atmosphere. They had navigated to a beach on the small planet Nerkur. Upon landing, Hunk had run out with his kitchen equipment and had created a makeshift prep space. It was only a matter of moments before the scents and smells of cooking filled the humid air.

They had landed their lions in a circle, the weight of the beasts sunk into the sand, but held their ground. The sand was a rich purple, which seemed to glow in the dual setting suns of this particular solar system. Allura had been sure to place her Lion actually sitting within the dark green sea. When Coran had protested, she had assuaged his concern with a reassurance that she knew what she was doing.

Romelle's eyes were the size of saucers and she disembarked the blue lion. Allura smiled at the other Altean's wonder at a new planet.

"There are two suns!" Romelle pointed up at the sky, amazement in her voice.

Coran nodded and began launching into a brief lecture about the efficiency of a dual solar system and how it compared to their original home planet of Altea. Allura tuned out, already familiar with this particular diatribe. Instead she turned her attention to the others as they disembarked their lions.

Pidge already had her computer out, no doubt scanning the local atmosphere and nearby flora and fauna for her database.

Lance was making his way toward hunk; his eyes were wide as saucers as he glanced at all of the ingredients being prepped for the meal. Allura doubted he would be helpful to Hunk; more likely he would sneak bites.

Krolia and Keith were helping Shiro from the Black Lion. The now completely white-haired Shiro was finally starting to look better. The dark bags under his eyes were beginning to subside, as he had spent the vast majority of their journey sleeping and recalibrating his energy levels. He still had a long way to go, as evidenced by the slow, heavily supported amble he made to the beach.

She knew that his spirit was strong. She had carried it herself, so she knew first hand that he would be okay. It was hard, however, to see how long it was taking him. Harder still to see how much it affected Keith. The younger man seemed to have a difficult time having to let his mentor lean on him instead of the other way around. What was that phrase that Shiro always said? Patience yields focus? Indeed, the amount of patience it would take to wait out Shiro's convalescence would yield much in the way of focus.

As the rest of the team began to gather around Hunk and settle into the sand for a long-awaited meal, Allura stayed close to where the waves were breaking upon the shore. She removed the boots from her Paladin armor so that she could better feel the water as it fell on the sand. It felt refreshing and cool compared to the pressurized cockpit of Blue. Not that her lion was uncomfortable, far from it. There was just something about being in the elements instead of the cold vacuum of space that reminded a person of the vitality of nature.

She was so lost in the moment and the feel of the water that she barely noticed when Shiro came to stand beside her. Almost. After carrying someone's soul inside you, it was difficult not to be able to sense them at a more heightened level. His presence made the small hairs on the back of her neck stand up in a pleasant way.

"You have a plan."

It wasn't a question. He seemed to know things and to be aware of a person's thoughts well before anything was voiced aloud.

She didn't glance back but kept her gaze on the waves as they captured the light.

"I have an idea. Whether or not it will work is yet to be seen. Blue inspired me to try something."

"A few doboshes ago we didn't even have a hope. If anyone can do something to solve this, it's you."

She turned toward him at that. With the white hair on top of his head, she couldn't help but be reminded of her father. That sage wisdom he was renowned for, Shiro carried it as well. There was something about his voice and the way he said things that made people believe what he said.

"Thank you, Shiro." She smiled at him before turning away again and stepping into the sea.

Shiro made to reach out his right arm out of habit but stopped himself. "Princess?"

She waded further into the water and moved closer to the body of her Lion.

"No time to waste. _If_ I can't do this and I fail, we will need to start again. Besides, the light will be gone in a dobosh or so and things always seem more hopeful in the light than in the dark."

Allura raised up her hands toward the pink and orange sky. She opened her stance and rooted herself in the water, feeling the sea move against her body and try to move her with it. Her feet buried into the sand, which gave a little beneath her.

She felt the stir of the White Lion within her and the voices of the Ancients in her ear.

She spread her mind's eye to the water. She forced herself to see the ocean for what it was: a vast expanse of constantly changing energy. She reached out beyond the shore to the massive waves miles from their location. The swell and the movement of the water as it crashed in on itself and then continued its journey toward the land. She traced one as it grew in size, towering like a liquid mountain until it grew too high and folded in on itself creating a gyre of water the fueled its own motion. Allura traced it as it pushed on toward the shore, pulsing like a living thing, like a heartbeat. She let herself feel what it was to be a wave that broke on the side, bursting into sea foam and bubbles, before being pulled back by the swell of the tide.

The energy seemed near infinite; the quintessence of it all seemed to pulse all around her.

When she felt she had tapped into that energy she stepped closer to her Lion and placed her hands upon it's hull.

It took a moment, trying to hold the energy of the water and trying to connect to Blue. It was like holding the puzzle piece and seeing where it had to go, but having to figure out the direction. Allura grimaced in was a puzzle piece that weighed a mental ton. The water that swirled around her was cool, but the mental effort was beginning to make her body heat up. Beads of sweat began to gather on her temple and the base of her neck.

'Come on, Blue. Help me make this work for you.'

She felt not only Blue's spirit as she connected with the beast, but was also able to see its mechanisms. She saw each different system and how each connected to each other. How all intertwined between the gears and the wires and the...magic that made this creature live.

'Please, Blue...show me the way to get this energy to you.'

Suddenly, as if a drain had been opened, Allura felt the connection to Blue's energy source. It was like a vacuum had been opened up and the Blue Lion was siphoning anything and everything it could. Allura felt gratitude at first, and then great concern as she realized she too was being pulled. Her own spirit and her own quintessence were acting as a conduit between the energy of the water outside and Blue's spirit inside. She felt her breath heave as the feeling strengthened to near painful levels in her breastbone. She could feel her legs give out a bit in the sand.

As much as she was uncertain and scared at this, she also began to feel something within Blue stir.

Spots began to dance around her and she could feel her body about to give in. The quintessence from the sea was pouring through her, crashing into her body like a riptide trapping someone beneath a powerful current. All that power was going directly through her and into Blue.

 _Hold on. You can hold on. It is almost done._

Allura forced her arms to contract against her Lion, trying to brace herself against the darkness that was creeping upon her senses.

The wave of energy seemed to be hollowing her out until no strength was left. She felt her legs give out beneath her, felt her body hit the water and be swept away by a wave. She felt the sting of inhaling salt water but lacked the ability to cough it out.

Before she lost feeling and sense of anything else though, she felt the humming and the power of Blue's full energy core pulsing in the same time as her own thundering heartbeat.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

At first, Shiro wasn't sure if he was actually sleeping and what he was witnessing was a dream. Allura was standing waist deep in the ocean, hands braced against her Lion, blue light completely engulfing her. It seemed to swarm around her body. The light swirled in the air around her, but also danced on the waves making the illusion even more intense.

"Whoa! What's going on over here?"

Shiro turned to see Lance, with eyes as wide as saucers, approach him. Shiro wasn't sure if he was relieved or not to know this was reality and not a dream.

"This, apparently, is Allura's plan for helping the Lions."

The light show had attracted the others and they all gathered on the beach.

"Should we go in and help her?" Hunk crossed and uncrossed his arms nervously, unsure of how to act in this situation.

Pidge was recording the events with a device in one hand, and getting energy readings with a device in another. "And how exactly would we help? Are you going to hold her hair so it doesn't get wet?"

"Okay", Lance puffed his chest and stepped toward the water, "I volunteer. I will help keep her hair up."

Both Shiro and Keith put up an arm to stop him.

"You would probably cause more harm than good. Leave her be. She knows what she's doing." Keith commanded.

"Uhh...do you think that is supposed to happen?" Krolia's face was full of concern as she pointed toward Allura.

The princess was obviously utilizing the remains of her reserves of strength and energy. Her face was set in a painful grimace and her arms were shaking with the effort of holding herself up. The energy that had been gently swirling around her just a moment ago now seemed to pulse from the water, through her, and into the Blue Lion. The pulse was not gentle, but a rapid beating that seemed to push Allura with every pulsation.

Suddenly the light vanished, seeping into the Lion and leaving Allura completely. Her legs seemed to finally give out and she slipped beneath the water, knocking her head against the hull of Blue as she went under.

"Allura!"

Everyone on shore rushed into action. They all reached for a limb and carried her limp form back to the shore.

The suns had lowered in the sky, and darkness was beginning to spread over everything. Allura's white hair was a stark contrast against the purple sand, and caught the remaining light of the sun. Her skin, which normally glowed with her energy, was pale. Her markings fairly blended in when they normally stood out upon her cheekbones.

Coran pushed his way through the group. He pressed his fingers to Allura's neck, desperately checking her pulse.

"Princess!" He shouted, and it was evident from the desperation in his voice that he was terrified that he might have lost her. "Allura!"

Her body shuddered violently as she coughed and spit out a fair amount of water. Coran was quick to brace her into a sitting position and she continued to hack. Her eyes, normally a beautiful swirl of purple and pink, seemed to stand out even more with her pale skin and the bruise already forming on her forehead. She searched the faces around her and quickly turned her attention toward the Blue Lion.

"It worked?"

No one seemed to heed her question, instead they were more concerned for her well-being.

"What was that?"

"Are you okay?"

"Lay down. Should I get a pillow? A blanket?"

"Should we give her CPR?"

"She's clearly breathing"

"But should we anyway?"

"Quiet!" Krolia was the one who shouted, glaring them all into a quiet submission. She knelt on the other side of the princess and helped Coran support her. It was evident that she lacked the energy and the strength to hold herself up. Her whole body seemed to be shaking. Krolia unconsciously began to rub Allura's back in an attempt to settle her. Allura turned toward the Galra warrior.

"It worked. I can feel that it worked." Her voice was a raspy whisper.

Shiro kneeled down next to her on the sand. He could see a tinge of purple around her lips.

"What did you do, Allura?"

"I...I channeled the quintessence of Blue's element."

"You mean, the water? You channeled water?"

Allura's eyes were drooping, but she nodded slowly. "I channeled the energy that the water creates."

Pidge scanned the Lion, and sure enough it showed that Blue's energy levels were at full capacity. "Whatever you did, it worked. Blue Lion is all fueled up and holding."

The princess smiled, and both Coran and Krolia could feel more and more of her weight sinking into the sand and against them. "I can...do more."

Coran frowned. "You've done enough, Princess. The Blue Lion has a full supply of energy."

"No…"Her eyes were fully closed now and the weight of exhaustion was slurring her speech, "I can help the other Lions."

Her head sunk against her chest, but Coran shook her.

"Princess. You've got to stay awake. We need to take care of that bump on your head." He looked up toward the group. "Paladins. Help me get her into the Blue Lion so that we can check out her head and get her warm and dry."

They worked together to get her to the Lion without jostling her too much. Coran kept her conscious, however slightly, and got out various pieces of equipment.

The space was much more cramped than the medical bay of the Castle. The Paladins and Romelle left the Blue Lion while Krolia and Coran attended to Allura.

Outside, the suns had dipped below the horizon and all was dark except for the flicker of the fire that Hunk had created to make dinner. The group unconsciously gathered in a circle. Pidge had out another device, running it over the Blue Lion.

"Every diagnostic proves it. It's fueled and ready to go."

"So…" Hunk scratched his chin, glancing around at everyone.

No one really seemed comfortable speaking up.

"So…" Hunk started again. He had never been a fan of long, drawn-out silences. He preferred to fill them with anything: Jokes, laughter, banter, compliments on a well-prepared meal, "Looks like we have a solution?"

Lance rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. But look what it did. That seemed to totally wipe her out."

Romelle, who had been passive and unconsciously petting the head of the cosmic wolf next to her, chimed in: "I take it she has not done that before? Are those not her normal powers?"

"Kind of", Pidge spoke up, " She's channeled energy before. Heck, she's saved an entire Balmera. And she...well I guess you could say she brought you back to life, Shiro."

"So she'll be okay?"

The group collectively shrugged. "She has always recovered." Keith answered, "Sometimes it takes a while, but she's always fine. So, yes Hunk. I think this is a possible solution."

Lance glanced at him angrily. "Uh...not until we know she's okay. Just because she has been fine before, doesn't mean she'll be fine now. We don't even know anything about what she can do. I don't think we can just assume that she'll be able to be our jumper cable."

Shiro sighed and felt the reserves of his own energy quickly begin to dwindle after that pass of adrenaline. "No one here would say that, Lance. We all care about the Princess. Keith is merely pointing out that a few hours ago, we had no hope. Now we have something. Of course, if this proves to be too much for the Princess, we go back to the drawing board."

"She's going to be okay." Krolia said, approaching them from the mouth of the Blue Lion, "She's exhausted and might have a slight concussion, but she's already adamant."

"Adamant about what?"

"To finish what she started. Coran is going to make sure that she rests, but she wants to start work as soon as she is able."

"Start work?" Hunk questioned.

"Yes. Start work fueling up each of the Lions. She says Yellow Lion is next."


End file.
